Home made Granola!!! Gluten Free, Fat Free, Vegan

Here is a picture of my granola. It is in its container so its not the best picture but none the less here it is.

     

Dry Ingredients

       10 cups oldfasioned rolled oats
        4 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
        4-5 Cups of a mixture of your Favorite seeds, nuts, grains.
 Some that I like are sunflower, pumpkin seeds, cashews, chopped almonds, Pecans, quinoa, millit seeds, flax seeds, and oat or wheat flax and/or germ.
                                     Place all of this in a HUGE bowl and mix well.


Sugar mixture

                   2 cups of honey, or real maple syrup
                   1 cup of coconut sugar or you can use brown sugar.
           Coconut sugar has health properties where there is almost none in brown sugar
                   1/2cup water.

Boil this in microwave for 5 minutes you will need to put it in a bigger bowl so it doesn't boil all over your microwave and you don't need to stop it to mix just let it cook for the full 5 min. or on stove ( we don't have a microwave) mixing so it doesn't burn for about 3-5 minutes just enough where it starts to thicken slightly.
 
When done put in 1-2 tsp vanilla and 1/8 tsp (pinch) of salt mix and poor over your oat mixture.
Work it in until all of your oat mixture is covered. If you need a little more just add a little more honey or syrup and mix in well. It will have a few crumbly peaces but most of the oats will not stick together but you can see that they are covered slightly with the sugars.
    Bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes stir and switch pans. So the pan that was on the bottom rack will now be on the top and vice versa. Bake for 10 minutes and mix again switch and bake for 5-7 minutes. Do this until you get desired color. It will burn if you don't watch it after the first two times.

When done add in your berries. We like raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dried apricots, dates, etc. Granola is done!!! Enjoy with whatever kind of milk you like.


 

Simple and Fast Vegan, Gluten Free, Noodle Soup

  Lets face it. We have days that we just need a "pizza night." I know that there are days that I have just been to busy, or too tired to even think about cooking. There are also days that I am rushing out the door and it was time for me to leave 10 minutes ago and I still have to brush my teeth and put on a little lip stick and out the door I go just to remember that I didn't have any dinner for the family!!!! Oh boy I don't want them to eat junk for dinner.  If they have to then I want to know what kind of "junk" goes into their bodies.  :0) So I have a few simple dinners that I will blog about. I put under that label for easy finding. Tonight I want to share what I did tonight for dinner.

 

Simple and delicious soup.

 

If you have just been to busy or are just tired or are having "one of those days" here is your dinner!!!

This makes a big pot to feed my crew of 7 so cut it in half or invite neighbors or friends etc over.

 

2- 32oz boxes of Organic Vegetable Broth Low Sodium

1- 12oz package Gluten Free Spaghetti Noodles

                                   ( I really love the texture of Heartland Noodles)

2-4 Cups of Frozen Veggies

1 tsp Dry Crushed Oregano

1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes (Optional but yummy)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

 

Heat broth with the frozen veggies in a pot. Once it is softly boiling or about to boil add your noodles and cook until the noodles are soft about 11 minutes or whatever the package says. Test noodles to make sure that they are Al dente. And there you go!!! Ready to eat and so yummy.

If you have a little more time it would be great with some onions that have been sautéed in broth first. Then add your broth, and veggies etc.

 

If you are in a SUPER big rush then just through it all in a big pot and tell whoever is in charge to check it in 15 minutes.  :0)

 

*This would be a great soup to test flavors on. Add Chili powder, dried Cilantro, Salsa, and a small can peppers and beans. Garnish with Guacamole. Yummy!!!

 

 I hope that you will try this soup my kids really loved it.

Best of my love, Emily Bryar

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies. Vegan, Gluten Free.

  Today as we were coming home from the park and my three younger children wanted to stop and get a treat. I told them that when we got home that we would try our hand at making some chocolate chip cookies.
  I had not tried to make them before but had wanted to my hand at making some. They turned out really good!!! They are not gooey in the middle which is my all time favorite. I had perfected my non-vegan chocolate chip cookies to be crunchy on the outside and gooey in the middle. However, these cookies were really good!!! They have the same texture as pumpkin cookies.
  Without further adieu here you go!!!

Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
In a mixing bowl combine
  1 1/2 Cup Vegan or Unprocessed Raw Sugar
  1/2 Cup Powdered Stevia
  1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  1- 15oz Can of Beans (Pinto or light Kidney work well, Drained, Rinsed and blended well!!!)
  3/4 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce
  1/2 Cup Coconut oil (Solid or Melted)
  1 full tincture liquid Stevia Carmel flavor (Optional) but delicious
  1 TBSP Vanilla
 Blend to combine
  Then add
  4 tsp Baking Powder
  1 tsp Salt
  1/8 tsp Xanthan Gum
   You can pick this up at your health food store and a lot of your regular grocery stores now carry this and a LITTLE goes a LONG ways!!! Learned that the hard way :0)
  1 bag of Chocolate Chips. If you like a lot of chocolate chips in your cookies then add 1 1/2- 2 bags. Make sure they are vegan.
   Add nuts if you like about 1 cup should do it or you can eyeball it.
Mix again
  4 Cups of Flour
         Any kind will do I used a mixture of Tapioca Flour, Brown Rice Flour, and Corn Starch. To make them Gluten free. About 1 cup tapioca, and corn starch, then 2 cups rice. I did have to add about half a cup extra of the rice flour because Tapioca flour is not very thickening. If you use White flour or Wheat flour start with the four cups and add if needed.
   Mix well and scoop onto a lightly sprayed cookie sheet. Bake for 13 minutes pull out and let cool on a cooling rack or eat the whole bowl raw. :0) Nothing better then raw dough and you cant get sick because there are no raw eggs.
 

                     Here is the consistency and yes I did eat it off of my spoon. Mmmmm Yummy.
I hope that you enjoy these as much as we do.

 Much Love, Emily Bryar

 
 

Introduction

   Hello Friends!!!! I wanted to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about my journey to becoming vegan.

Me and my family. Starting at the bottom left and working to the right. My oldest girl we will call her "Sugar" my son "Buddy" Me "Emily" our baby "Beeps" the love of my life and best friend "Steve" my second to the youngest "Care Bear" and my second to the oldest "Spice"

  My name if Emily Bryar and I am a wife of 16 years and a mother of 5 beautiful Children. My oldest child is 15 and my youngest is 6. Four beautiful girls, and one sweet boy stuck right smack in the middle of the girls.  That is the basics of who I am at this point. But I want to back up a bit. You see I am a foodie!!!! I have always LOVED food. To the point that I ballooned up to 205lbs at the tender age of 10. Some people have "picky eaters" that was NOT me. I loved food so much that seconds were not enough most of the time. The only thing that I did not care for and still don't to this day is any kind of sea food (Unless breaded and deep fried with LOTS of sauce) When I was growing up I couldn't wait to be a mother. I pictured myself as the kind of mom who always had cookies, bread, brownies or some type of treat in the oven and my children coming in from a hard day of play with their friends just in time to grab a hot fresh home made cookie. I learned how to cook at a young age. My mother made sure that we all knew how to cook before we left the house. I remember her running out of bread and giving me the chore to go and make bread for the family. I HATED making it because we didn't have bread machines when I was growing up and so it was all done by hand and it was a messy gooey chore. Later in life I was grateful to her for teaching me how to make bread. I have perfected my recipe and will have it up and ready to share soon I promise.
  Now that I am a mother and I have learned about health and how to take care of my body that dream is still here. I love when my children get into the kitchen and cook with me.

                                                   Beeps making Banana Bread with me.

I also realize how important it is that they learn to eat healthy. I did not want my children to grow up with the weight issue that I had. So, I needed to figure out how to make it so that I could have my cake (Literally) and eat it too without killing my health or the health of my family.
My journey started a few years ago when I found out the benefits of going raw. I tried to do that and all I did was make nut treats. I gained a bunch of weight and knew that I needed to do something different so I went back to clean eating. I felt good doing that but was led once again to eating raw again and went fruit CRAZY. Still not very balanced and didn't feel very strong and gained weight again. I was also eating some fats which is not advisable if you are going to become a fruitarian. I may blog about that later. If you want to find out more about that diet go check out the book called  The 80-10-10 diet.  It is very good but I found that for me it was to much for my family. I still have a family who is not used to eating raw and they all felt like they were starving!!! I ended up back eating clean once again and then I found The China Study. When I read this book it all made sense to me and so here I am cooking vegan and LOVING it!!! I feel great. I have more energy then I used to have, and I am not hungry, or feel like I can't have a treat. There are times when I feel like I am running out of ideas for dinner that is when I hit the net and google vegan dinners. There are so many recipes and resources to help me figure it all out. Best of all my family is a happy family. My husband doesn't miss the meat because I cook with beans and the kids well, some of them are "picky eaters" but they do eat as much if not a little more than they did before. :0)
    I also started telling them that I cook for me and they are invited to eat my dinner.  If they choose to fast from dinner then they are still required to sit with the rest of the family so that we can be together and talk about our day. They also usually grab some food because we are all eating. We usually go around the table and have to answer one of two questions "What was the best part of your day?" or "What was the nicest thing that you did for someone today?" Some of my children like to talk more then others so this gives everyone a chance to be heard.  I got side tracked but it is a good idea and maybe you can implement it in your home.
  So here I am at the age of 37 still working my way out of a life time of struggling with my weight. Heaven knows I have tried ALL of the diets out there. And I feel like this is the one that I can live with. I feel great and I am starting to loose my extra weight. My heaviest was at a whole 216lbs now I am currently 163lbs. I am not quite where I want to be but I am working my way there. I also started  running with my husband. I may tell you that long story in a future post about the importance of exercise.  For now, This is me. I love to get into the kitchen and figure out fun healthy at least healthier treats, meals, and snack ideas. I hope that you like what you find here and that we can become good friends as we learn and share together this journey called health. :0)
 Much love from my kitchen to yours, Emily Bryar